As an external PhD Candidate, I investigate how institutional, legal and financial frameworks shape the design space for policy instruments that aim to support the delivery of agri-environmental climate public goods by farmers. My research explores how goal-oriented, adaptive and scalable policy arrangements can credibly link farm level management to broader ecological goals, while satisfying legal, administrative and societal expectations of accountability.
Alongside my academic work, I work as a strategic advisor at BoerenNatuur, the national umbrella organisation of the 40 agricultural collectives that are responsible for implementing the Dutch Agricultural Nature and Landscape Management scheme. My efforts focus on improving the scheme’s design and implementation to address persistent gaps between ecological ambitions, practical feasibility and fair compensation for the public goods that farmers deliver. In this role, I bridge policy and practice to strengthen the ecological and institutional foundations of a more sustainable and equitable agricultural system.
This dual perspective enables me to identify institutional tensions from within and to engage both analytically and practically with the challenge of designing agri-environmental climate policies that are not only effective and legitimate, but also resilient and future-proof.
Expertise
My expertise lies in the institutional and legal conditions under which goal-oriented agri-environmental climate schemes can be made more effective, legitimate and scalable. I focus particularly on the institutional, legal and governance conditions under which goal-oriented agri-environmental climate schemes, including KPI-based, landscape-level and collective approaches, can be made more effective, legitimate and scalable.
I work at the intersection of:
- regulatory frameworks, such as the CAP, EU state aid law, WTO rules and national policy regimes, as enablers or constraints for the design and implementation of payment schemes for the delivery of public goods by farmers;
- policy design and adaptive governance, to understand how instruments are shaped, reinterpreted or blocked within evolving institutional contexts;
- institutional logics and implementation challenges, especially in systems where legal, ecological and market rationalities collide, creating tensions around legitimacy, measurability and accountability.
By combining conceptual and design-oriented research with my practice-based policy work, I aim to contribute to both scientific insights and real-world policy reforms.
Education
2005: Certificate of International and European Law (post-MA/Drs. advanced postgraduate programme (82.5 ECTS).
2005: MA/Drs. Russian Studies, specialisation Russian law (thesis: International Law in the Russian Legal System and Practice).
